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Thai military drops "peace bombs"
EFL.I have my doubts if this will work...Hundreds of Thai school children and air force recruits have loaded an estimated 100 million origami birds onto military transport planes in preparation for a "peace bombing" of the violent Muslim south of the country. Look! Little paper birds, Achmed! They're soooo cute! I'm throwing my AK in the river! The little pieces of folded paper, to be dropped from the air on Sunday to mark the birthday of Thailand's revered king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, are meant to sow peace, harmony and goodwill in the three southernmost provinces, where an 11-month insurgency has claimed nearly 500 lives. Yeah. Good luck with that. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose government has struggled to get to the root of the violence, has defended his paper-bird scheme against opponents who say the government is just dumping 48 plane-loads of rubbish. Point: Opponents. Some people in the mainly Muslim deep south, which has a century-long history of ethnic and religious hostility towards the largely Buddhist administration in Bangkok, question the symbolism behind the gesture. Jeez, I wonder why that might be? In 1948, the Thai air force was called in to bomb parts of the south along the border with Malaysia to quell a rumbling Muslim separatist insurgency. Now that might work. "The paper birds are not a traditional symbol for us," said leader of Abdullaham Abdulsamad of the Narathiwat Islamic Council. "It's a different culture. Our people do not understand what the birds stand for. We will take the little paper birds as a sign to kill the infidels. But, then again, we think everything means kill the infidels. Thaksin's initial intention was to drop 62 million paper cranes, one for every person in the country. A media blitz, which included a cabinet meeting to teach ministers how to fold the birds, sparked origami fever the length and breadth of the land. Origami Fever! Catch it! The birds will be flown to the provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani in Thailand's south, where they will be loaded onto 48 smaller planes for dispersal. Whatever the differences between Thai Buddhists and southern Thai Muslims, who are ethnic Malay and speak a Malay dialect, someone will have to clean up tonnes of paper afterwards. ...and it won't be us...INFIDEL!!! Posted by: tu3031 2004-12-03 |
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